Marathon Mistakes
New to running? Don’t make the same mistake I did.
Mistake #1: Too Much Too Soon
When I trained for my first marathon, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. My first week I did 17 miles in 3 days of running and my long run was a little over 9 miles. I was extremely sore all week as a result. 6 weeks later I was sidelined for 18 days with a foot injury. 3 weeks later and I was sidelined for another 14 days due to an injury in the back of my knee. The longest run I did during my training block was 16 miles a couple weeks out from my marathon, my goal was to get to 20 miles, but the injuries limited my progression. I didn’t get injured because running is bad for you, I got injured because I did too much too soon. When you go from not running to running 17 miles in one week, you’re going to feel and likely regret the impact on your body. It’s best to ease into running to give your body time to adapt to the new load. When running, each step can put 4-8 times your body weight and your cardiovascular system progresses faster than your muscles, tendons, and joints. So, like me many runners do too much too soon because they feel like they can only to get injured in the middle of their training block. The takeaway is go slow. Slow on your runs, slow on your milage increase and progress slowly if you’re new to running.
Mistake #2: Fueling (or the Lack Thereof)
Not only did I not know what I was doing when it came to training but also fueling. A few things I did that I don’t recommend. Not taking water or food/carbs on most of my runs. Taking in fuel at random. Pouring table salt in a bottle of water. Yes, go ahead and laugh. These are all things I did, and I do not recommend them at all. Typical recommendation is 30-60 grams per hour in a race and nowadays athletes are experimenting and seeing success with as many as 100-120 grams per hour during races. The problem is everyone is different, so you have to see what your body prefers. Too many carbs can lead to GI issues, and too little will leave you bonking midway through the race. That’s why it’s important to fuel your runs in training and document what you did, how you felt and adjust to make it better.
Mistake 3#: Pacing
For my marathon, I had a goal of 3:30 and I knew that meant an average 8 minute per mile. During training I would try and do just that on most every run. If I walked, then I had to run a little faster to make up the time to make sure I was averaging 8min per mile. And although I tried to stay at a steady pace, I often found myself going fast then slow, fast then slow. Come race day and I did pretty good but went out a little too fast. Probably around a 7:45 pace and by mile 16 I was feeling it. Again, that was the most miles I had done in training and add in the fact that I was just popping Honey Stinger gummies and sipping on LMNT it’s no wonder I was walking at mile 24 feeling all the pain in lower body (feet-hips). Had I stayed at a 8:00min mile pace and nailed down my fueling I believe I could have hit my goal, but I ended up finishing in 3:44. Not bad for a first marathon but it could’ve been better.
Conclusion:
These were all rookie mistakes that I made training and running my first marathon. These mistakes cost me a stronger race, but I learned from them. Failure is often the best teacher, but if you can learn from someone else’s failure that’s even better. So hopefully there are some takeaways for anyone who is learning how to run a strong race.
